Reliving our illustrious past among ancestral houses

To celebrate our 47th year managing the Operation Brotherhood Montessori schools, we chose to bring about 365 senior administrative and academic personnel to Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar. This treasure throve of 27 Spanish colonial houses circa 1870 to 1920 has been the brain child of Jerry Acuzar, who was part of NHA Director General Gaudencio Tobias’ team of improving squatter community zones in Metro Manila and Cebu during the Marcos governance. Relocating these heritage houses from Binondo and Tondo, Laguna, Bulacan, Pampanga, Ilocos and Bicol to 400 hectares of rice-field in Bagac, Bataan must have taken place within two decades as Mr. Acuzar quietly courted the current owners, usually great grandchildren of the rich principales or hacienderos who were privileged to build their homes around the plaza. Regular maintenance became difficult since most of them live in Metro Manila or have migrated abroad.

Thanks to Mr. Acuzar, his construction workers and architects have specialized in “carefully and painstakingly reconstructing heritage houses from different parts of the country, rebuilding them ‘brick by brick’ and ‘plank by plank’. ”These “stand resplendent with pride against a backdrop of majestic mountains, expansive rice fields and a running river that flows to the sea. Currently, there are 27 models of heritage structures, each full with memories and history. Walking along village cobblestone streets or riding one of the caruajes (horse drawn carriages) commands a feeling of nostalgia, wonder and romance.”

The restoration project in Bagac started in 2006 and is still on going. Mr. Acuzar is a perfectionist, duplicating the carved air vents and tromphe d’ oil ceiling and wall paintings in the grandest Casa Vyzantina (Byzantine art of Istanbul), which is close to the entrance, together with Casa San Miguel, and Casa Mexico (reception office).

My Lolo’s ‘bahay na bato’ In Singalong

Both my mother, Remedios Quiogue Silverio, and mother-in-law Pelagia Villaflor Soliven, were widowed during the Japanese war. My father, a Justice of the Peace, died in the Manila massacre of male Filipinos, while Papa Benito died during the Death March in Bataan. Together with my sister Medy and brother, Calixto Silverio Jr., a Jesuit Brother, I grew up in Lolo Manuel’s huge “bahay na bato,” the only heritage house along Singalong street with its prominent steep galvanized roof, similar to the Mabini house by the Nagtahan Bridge. It was a two-storey sawali house painted light green. Sturdy tree trunks in the living room supported the heavy roof, which shook every time there was a strong wind. Large grilled windows and etched calado panels topped the walls to ventilate the spacious sala. 

Both World War I and II destroyed major cities of the world. European countries readily reconstructed their distinguished cities like Frankfurt, Warsaw, and Croatia, attracting many tourists. The huge Japanese and American funds given to our War Damage Commission could have fully reconstructed Intramuros, but it never happened. Sad to say, we have not been properly educated to honor our history and culture. This will require the urgent collaboration of DepEd, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCAA) as well as the Institute of Historical Commission to work closely together. Schools are so textbook-dependent but the book publishers omitted this vital topic in the book contents.

How a heritage house deteriorates –the Casa Biñan story

Casa Biñan is a two-storey house built by Gregorio Alonzo in the 16th century. It is located in front of Biñan Plaza, Laguna. Teodora Alonzo, the mother of Jose Rizal, eventually inherited the house and expanded it in the 18th century.

At the beginning of the 20th century, and prior to the current ownership, this house was converted into a movie theater known as Cinema Ligaya. Following his parents’ death, the current owner, Geraldo Alberto leased out the ground floor to a bank and utilized the upper floor as office space. A portion of the property where the old movie house was located caught fire and was eventually leased to a supermarket following re-construction. As it began to deteriorate, the building with its’ prohibitive maintenance costs nudged the owner to move the home to another lot and otherwise utilize the property on which it stood. Gerardo Alberto, decided to donate what was left of this building to Jerry Acuzar of Las Casas Pilipinas de Acuzar in order to preserve and use what remained of it. Now fully restored, it stands at the end of the “museum town” close to the Umagol River, and serves breakfast and lunch buffet to big tour groups like ours.

Popularizing the culture-loaded curriculum of Europe

After training at the Association Montessori Internationale at Perugia, Italy, I started the first Operation Brotherhood Montessori Center beside the office of Operation Brotherhood International (OBI) in the Syquia apartment along M.H. del Pilar. The enrolment expanded after I invited the women columnists in 1966 to watch me work with three- to four-year-olds. Gely Mendoza (Manila Times), Nang Sevilla (Chronicle), and Betty Belmonte (Chinese Daily) wrote enthusiastically about the revolutionary “prepared environment” for preschoolers, filled with hands-on materials for Care of Person, Housekeeping, complete Sensorial materials, Botany, Zoology, Geography and History apparata. The Math and Language lessons enabled them to acquire third grade competencies.

Having trained more college graduate teachers with the Montessori Proficiency course, I was free to go back to Italy and pursue the Montessori Proficiency training just in time to continue the preschool to the elementary school level.

As a non-stock, non-profit institution, O.B. Montessori schools rented old mansions in Manila, especially in the mid sixties, when prominent families left their ancestral houses to relocate to the new Ayala villages in Makati – Forbes Park, San Lorenzo, Urdaneta, Bel Air, etc.

OBI president Oscar Arrellano chose the CuUnjieng mansion in Paco. The facade had a pair of cement Dalmatian dogs along the driveway, with a dried-up fountain on the front garden. All the floors were made of wide narra planks but the azotea had beautiful tiles like those of the Spanish cathedral in Iloilo. The ten spacious, high ceiling rooms, included the living and dining rooms, bedrooms and old-fashion kitchen. These provided us enough space for preschool and grade school classrooms, teacher-training room and offices. In 1970, two years before Martial Law, the owner, Helen CuUnjieng decided to convert the house into a four-door apartment. Mrs. Pinlac, a Pampangueña, took care of the demolition. This coincided with the construction of our new house in North Greenhills.

Reconstructing a heritage house in a 20th century residence

I loved the CuUnjieng house so much like a second home, so I bought all the floors and the antique winding staircase, which Gabby Formoso, our architect, used for the inner courtyard with a Koi fish pond and the staircase of our split-level house on Kennedy Street.

 Noting my keen interest in old artifacts, Mrs. Pinlac invited me to see the mansion in Mexico, Pampanga of Don Rafael de Leon, which she demolished. Max and I were doing weekly TV shows for ABS-CBN: Impact and Montessori for Everyone. One day, right after I did the Saturday live show, I decided to visit Mrs. Pinlac’s “junkyard”. It was an open-air two-storey warehouse of old lumbers, metal railings, and antique doors. Mrs. Pinlac said that her customers came in horse-drawn calesas to purchase her items. I went through this collection still wearing my studio make-up and TV host attire.

I discovered a treasure of Philippine architectural antiquities: tall carved narra doors (10 pieces), elaborate window grills with RL (Rafael de Leon) initials (12 pieces), stained glass windows (8 pieces), and heavy molave beams. I bought them all for a song, including a floral carved wooden headboard for our master bed. It was etched with 1887 (Jose Rizal died 1896). 

The legacy of our Filipino forefathers must be preserved

“At Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar, the legacy of our forefathers and the beautiful Filipino traditions live on. It is a step back into the past, reliving the age-old tradition and practices distinct to our culture, without leaving the luxury and comforts of the modern world.” Mr. Acuzar is a very modest man, but he gave his mind and heart to this project. It is time that mayors all over the country should give prominence to the cultural landscape of each city. These will spare the pride of our young generation. May his tribe increase.

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